Law Commons^™

Renewing The Bayh-Dole Act As A Default Rule In The Wake Of Stanford V. Roche, Parker Tresemer

Parker Tresemer

Since its enactment in 1980, the Bayh-Dole Act has incentivized university and private industry investment in new technologies by granting them exclusive patent rights to their inventors’ federally funded technologies. The Supreme Court’s holding in Stanford v. Roche, however, threatens to stall American innovation by undermining the Act’s intended structure for disposition of intellectual property rights. Congress enacted the Bayh-Dole Act to solve a specific problem: stagnating technological innovation in the decades after World War II. Universities and private companies are unwilling to commercialize basic federally funded technologies without exclusive rights to those technologies. The Congressional record surrounding the Bayh-Dole …

Best Practices For Drafting University Technology Assignment Agreements After Filmtec, Stanford V. Roche, And Patent Reform, Parker Tresemer

Parker Tresemer

Since the end of World War II, federally funded universities and private companies have been an integral part of continued American innovation and technological production. However, like most rational economic actors, universities and private companies are only willing to invest in federally funded technologies if they are guaranteed some sort of exclusive return on their investment. By granting federal contractors exclusive patent rights to their employee’s federally funded inventions, the Bayh-Dole Act provided the necessary incentives for private sector investment in federally funded technologies. However, case law subsequent to Bayh-Dole’s enactment has significantly undermined the system of incentives Congress intended …

Interests In The Balance: Fda Regulations Under The Biologics Price Competition And Innovation Act, Parker Tresemer

Parker Tresemer

Recent biotechnology advances are yielding potentially life-saving therapies, but without FDA regulations designed to minimize product costs, patients will continue to be unable to afford these expensive biologic products. Many believe that these prohibitive costs stem from weak competition from generic biologic products, also known as follow-on biologics. To correct this deficiency, and to address the often conflicting regulatory and policy concerns associated with biologic products, Congress enacted the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act. The Act created an abbreviated approval pathway for biologic products and, if effective, could increase competition while driving down product costs. But legislation alone is …

Facebook Meets The Nlrb: Employee Online Communications And Unfair Labor Practices, Robert Sprague

Robert Sprague

In the past eighteen months, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has received approximately one hundred charges from employees that were disciplined or fired as a result of their work-related online communications, principally through Facebook. These and other charges have resulted in twenty-one NLRB Office of the General Counsel Advice Memoranda, ten General Counsel reviews, four Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) decisions, and one Board decision, all addressing employee use of social media. This Article is the first to examine in detail those employee charges and the thirty-six incidents addressed by the Office of the General Counsel, the ALJs, and the …

Note: Guiding The Modern Lawyer Through A Global Economy: An Analysis On Outsourcing And The Aba's 2012 Proposed Changes To The Model Rules, Patrick Poole

Patrick Poole

Over the last few decades, the dramatic changes that have occurred in the global economy have similarly altered the landscape for outsourced work both domestically and internationally. One study estimates that as many as 3.3 million white-collar jobs could be shipped abroad by 2015. This growing trend has also substantially affected the unique nature of the legal field. For the past year and a half, the American Bar Association (ABA) Ethics 20/20 Commission has been considering changes to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct as they relate to domestic and international outsourcing. The revision process has included soliciting input from …

Behavioral Advertising: From One-Sided Chicken To Informational Norms, Richard Warner, Robert Sloan

Richard Warner

When you download the free audio recording software from Audacity, you agree that Audacity may collect your information and use it to send you advertising. Billions of such pay-with-data exchanges feed information daily to a massive advertising ecosystem that tailors web site advertising as closely as possible to individual interests. The vast majority want considerably more control over our information. We nonetheless routinely enter pay-with-data exchanges when we visit CNN.com, use Gmail, or visit any of a vast number of other websites. Why? And, what, if anything, should we do about it? We answer both questions by describing pay-with-data exchanges …

Vulnerable Software: Product-Risk Norms And The Problem Of Unauthorized Access, Co-Authored With Robert Sloan, Richard Warner, Robert H. Sloan

Richard Warner

No abstract provided.

Decoding First Amendment Coverage Of Computer Source Code In The Age Of Youtube, Facebook And The Arab Spring, Jorge R. Roig

Jorge R Roig

Like Deck Chairs On The Titanic: Why Spectrum Reallocation Won’T Avert The Coming Data Crunch But Technology Might Keep The Wireless Industry Afloat, Brian J. Love, David J. Love, James V. Krogmeier

Brian J. Love

Skyrocketing mobile data demands caused by increasing adoption of smartphones, tablet computers, and broadband-equipped laptops will soon swamp the capacity of our nation’s wireless networks, a fact that promises to stagnate a $1 trillion slice on the nation’s economy. Among scholars and policymakers studying this looming “spectrum crisis,” consensus is developing that regulators must swiftly reclaim spectrum licensed to other industries and reallocate those rights to wireless providers. In this interdisciplinary piece, we explain in succinct terms why this consensus is wrong. With data demands increasing at an exponential rate, spectrum reallocation plans that promise only linear growth are destined …